A new documentary asks those INVOLVED for ANSWERS to Nigeria's June 12th 1993 Election Question that Won't Go Away.
In 1993, Nigeria held what many still call the freest election in its history. MOSHOOD KASHIMAWO OLAWALE ABIOLA — MKO — won it. Everyone accepted the result. Then the military annulled it, locked him up, and five years later he died in detention, collapsing during a meeting with a US delegation on the very day his release was expected. The cause of his death has never been settled.
Filmmaker OSE OYAMENDAN spent years and more than a hundred hours of footage tracking down nearly everyone still alive who was in the room or near it — including GENERAL IBRAHIM BABANGIDA, who annulled the election, and GENERAL ABDULSALAMI ABUBAKAR, who was head of state when ABIOLA died. His documentary MKO had its world premiere at Sheffield DocFest 2026. He sits down with me to trace how a national election became a global mystery — and why, thirty years on, it still shapes Nigeria.
In this conversation: what the record actually establishes about June 12 and the annulment; the family's final visit to a man who looked grey and unwell; BABANGIDA'S own account of why he cancelled the result; the rivalry between ABIOLA and OBASANJO; the testimony of ABIOLA's guard, THEODORE ZADOK, pulled away for forty minutes before the collapse; the tea, the cup, and why OSE is careful not to call it poison; the death of SANI ABACHA a month earlier and the connection some see between them; and what the annulment did to Nigerian democracy — including why OSE's own mother stopped voting.
OSE is clear throughout that he draws no verdict on how Abiola died; the film lays out the accounts and leaves the conclusion to the viewer. Africa Here and Now follows the same line — the contested claims here belong to the film and its participants.
MKO (2026) — a film by Ose Oyamendan. World Premiere, International Competition, Sheffield DocFest 2026.
00:00 \"we'll say it's in the tea\"
00:18 Getting Pickering to talk: lawyers, access, and the making of MKO
01:35 Who killed Abiola? Why Ose leaves the verdict to the viewer
01:57 June 12, 1993: the win everyone accepted, then detention
02:22 The last days — the family's final visit, and a man gone grey
03:31 The morning of the meeting: awake, singing, \"excited\"
04:00 Building the chronology: reporting a story with various claims
05:15 Babangida: the charm, the corner he boxed himself into
06:34 Why he annulled it — \"I don't want to die\"
07:03 The Abacha problem Babangida never dealt with
08:41 Was Abiola too trusting? Naïve, or facing something new?
10:46 The Renaissance man: the richest man who declared himself president
11:13 Ose's first encounter with Abiola
13:00 Obasanjo, rivalry, and \"Abiola is not the Messiah\"
16:34 Abubakar takes over — why release everyone but him?
18:22 Theodore Zadok: the guard pulled away for 40 minutes
19:00 Inside the 28-minute tape: the cup, the discomfort, the collapse
20:41 Was it the tea? Why the poisoning theory doesn't hold
21:34 In defence of Susan Rice
21:55 Abacha's death a month earlier — the apple, the connection
22:55 Who benefits? Oil, the army, and the political class
23:52 The mandate he would not renounce — and the Kofi Annan letter
25:07 The stolen democracy: why Ose's mother stopped voting
26:23 June 12 as symbol: the one man who won every part of Nigeria
27:18 Has Nigeria recovered? Weak centre, strong regions, a military system
29:19 Mandela's warning: no strong Nigeria, no strong continent
Key figures
MKO Abiola — businessman and publisher, winner of the annulled 1993 election, died in detention 1998.
Ibrahim Babangida — military president who annulled the result.
Sani Abacha — seized power in late 1993, died June 1998.
Abdulsalami Abubakar — head of state at the time of Abiola's death. Thomas Pickering — US Under Secretary of State, led the delegation at the final meeting.
Susan Rice — then Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.
Theodore Zadok — Abiola's security guard
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